Web management question… centralize or decentralize content creation?

Last month I was working with a university to review their web management policies and practices and recommend changes consistent with their resources, both human and fiscal. A key question was whether or not to move back to a more centralized content system for content creation and publishing.

Searching for background information at the start of the project, I visited several university sites to see what was available online. The answer: not much. A strong exception turned up at Sacred Heart University in Connecticut, where there is a very clear website presentation of their “Web Content Management” policies and practices.

Last year we did a Customer Carewords survey for Sacred Heart to find out how well people (current and future students, alumni, and faculty and staff) using the website liked the experience. The response was unusually positive for the accuracy and completeness of the content and the clarity of the language used to present it.

Learning from Nancy Boudreau at Sacred Heart University

I asked Nancy Boudreau, director of web content management at Sacred Heart, to share her thoughts about the strengths and weaknesses of centralized vs. decentralized content management in the four questions below.

A very big “thank you” to Nancy for taking the time to do this.

Q.
When universities first started to adopt Content Management Systems (CMS), one
goal was to move to decentralized content publishing. Today, there is more talk
about the value of centralized content creation. Have you been following that
discussion? What’s your own experience been?

Yes,
I’ve been following the centralized vs. decentralized discussions with much
interest.

We went from centralized to decentralized about 7 years ago with some
success. We had just redesigned the website and implemented a new content
management system. With limited web staffing and resources, it seemed like a
good time to give it a try. It definitely has its pros – no bottleneck to get
things posted, ability to make minor edits on your own quickly. It also had its
cons – pages published with typos, grammatical errors, duplicate information,
content just copied and pasted from print materials without being “webified’.

Q.
What lessons have you learned from your first effort to decentralize content
creation?

With
our last CMS rollout, we assigned a web liaison for each department allowing
them to publish edits/additions to their web pages.We provided group training on the CMS, gave
everyone a user guide, provided refresher courses and one-on-one training as
necessary. We also provide telephone and email support.In addition, we hosted some “writing right for
the web” webinars.

With our upcoming
redesign and new CMS implementation, we’re seeking a more balanced approached.
While we will continue to train departments on the CMS to make their own basic
edits and offer web writing instruction, we need to have some sort of review
process and systems in place to remind web editors to review and edit their
content at regular intervals.How are we
going to do this? Well, we’re still working out the details but our CMS will be
able to help automate some of that process.

Q.
What’s the major obstacle to an effective decentralized publishing system?

The
pendulum is swinging back in the direction of centralized content editing but
not because universities don’t have a CMS or that the CMS isn’t being used to
its fullest potential.

The biggest obstacle to decentralized publishing is
ensuring the quality of content. Web content isn’t just about updating some
event dates, adding course descriptions or editing program pages. It’s about
marketing your university’s academics and culture and creating a unified brand
and message. It requires writing engaging, search engine optimized content, and
that takes time and practice.And thanks
to people like you, the message is getting out that a website isn’t just about
pretty pictures and typography – it’s about THE CONTENT.

Q.
I loved the idea of 2-hour website boot camps described on your website. How
have those worked?

As
far as our website boot camps, yes they have been very successful. We get
departments to focus on their processes, procedures and top user tasks.Then we look at their web pages to see if
those process and tasks are represented in the most user friendly way. There are a lot of “ah ha” moments as we look
through sites and rearrange or edit content to make it more user friendly.

The
downside to these boot camps is they do take lot of time so they’re not always
practical.We do a lot of pre-work
before we meet with the department, such as reviewing the current site as well
as similar sites for best practices so that we arrive at the meeting with some
actionable items.During the 2 hour boot
camp, we make edits on the spot and create an action plan for content that is
more involved and needs to be developed.By the end of the meeting, everyone leaves feeling like they’ve
accomplished something.

My second 2-day “Writing Right for the Web” conference is happening May 24-25 in Atlanta. We’ll explore in depth not only “writing right” on traditional websites, but for social media and mobile sites as well.